Results of the

Chalcots Community Hack

Voting on the Chalcots Community Hack has closed, the votes have been counted, and we can now reveal the projects that Chalcots Community Action will take on first.

But before we examine the results, let's take a look at the origins of the Chalcots Community Hack and its vote.

Chalcots Community Manifesto

Long before the start of last month's Hack, Community Organisers from the Chalcots interviewed and surveyed 250 residents from 228 individual households – this represents 32% of all households in the Chalcots.

They asked residents about life on the Chalcots, how they'd like to contribute to their community, and their ideas for social change.

This research resulted in the Chalcots Community Manifesto, listing 9 goals to make the Chalcots a stronger, safer, more connected community. (You can find the Manifesto here - it's a cracking read, if we may say so ourselves.)

Now that Chalcots Community Action had a set of goals, we started work on how to achieve them.

Hacking towards the goal(s)

A hack brings people together to solve a challenge. Chalcots Community Action hosted a series of hacks, focusing on the nine goals of the Manifesto (the other four goals, primarily about the works on the Chalcots, will be taken on later). Residents worked alongside representatives from local organisations, businesses, and the council with a series of workshops, activities, and discussions.

The hacks produced nine ideas, which were then put to a public vote to decide which ideas should take priority over the coming months.

THE RESULTS

We asked residents for their top three ideas, as we wanted to understand the broad priorities of Chalcots residents. In total, 44 residents voted online. A first-choice vote is worth 4 points, a second-choice vote worth 2 points, and a third-choice vote is worth one point. Using this method, the results were as follows:

As you can see above, Chalcots Hub is the most most popular idea, with 62 points. Chalcots Growing Together is in second place with 49 points, and Chalcots Can is the third most popular idea with 43 points.

Here's a reminder what the three most popular projects are all about.

Chalcots Hub is a resident-led group to provide independent information, advice and advocacy around housing, disabilities and health issues. They would support individual casework and signpost to other services and activities. They would provide a resident scrutiny function. They would have a dedicated physical base on the Chalcots.

Chalcots Growing Together is a plan to update and improve the play areas and outdoor spaces of the Chalcots, making them suitable for children, young people, and adults. the goal is to create pride in communal spaces, and provide a space for people of all ages to share.

Chalcots Can is a plan to improve the health and mental health of all Chalcots residents, making the most of existing community assets (such as local gyms, TRA spaces, and exercise classes). Chalcots residents will be given a card allowing access to a range of activities and events at a reduced cost, providing opportunities to get together as a community and exercise.

What else did we learn?

We asked residents and professionals to pledge support to ideas – the support could be as simple as lending a pair of hands on a regular basis, or by bringing experience and expertise to a project.

The results show that the chalcots is a multi-talented estate, and that voters are keen to contribute to community-led change. Every project recieved pledged support, and all at relatively similar levels.

We also asked voters to say which building of the Chalcots they call home. In this case, Bray was the most well-represented block, but only by a small margin.

What next?

In the not-too distant future, we will be reaching out to residents, the chalcots TRAs, Camden Council, and our voluntary sector partners to begin work on Chalcots Hub, Chalcots Growing Together, and Chalcots Can.